Self-protection and insurance for informal workers in Cameroon: substitutability or complementarity?

-The objective of this article is to clarify and analyze the relationship between the different forms of self-protection of informal workers and insurance coverage to ad-dress perceived social risks in Cameroon. The analysis shows a high participation of in-formal workers in the social protection market. The rates of adoption of preventive and protective measures for insurance, deferral, solidarity of proximity, traditional solidarity and other means of protection are respectively 32.9%, 56%, 58.8%, 70.4% and 90.9%. The estimation of the multivariate Probit model shows that self-protection strategies (deferral, community solidarity, community solidarity and other forms of protection) and insurance seem largely complementary. The correlation coefficients of the estimates are indeed significant and positive. Complementarity between self-protection strategies and insurance is weak when controlling socio-demographic characteristics and strong when controlling individual preferences.